Unit 7: The Titanic

Past simple and past continuous

We use the past simple for something that happened and finished in the past. We use it
when we say or know the time when something happened. It is often used in stories, when
one thing happened after another.
Last year, we travelled by jeep across the Sahara.
When the car stopped, we all got out.
We use the past continuous for something that happened in the past but was not finished at
a particular time. This can be an exact time in the past (12 oclock, etc.) or the time when
another thing happened.
It was 12 oclock and we were standing in the midday sun.
Mick was checking the engine when the rescue helicopter arrived.
We also use the past continuous to describe a scene or situation in the past or for an action
that continued for some time.
The stars were beginning to come out.
The dog was barking loudly.

Form
Past simple: positive
For regular verbs, the past simple ends in -ed. Irregular verbs have different forms. The past
simple form is the same for all persons (I, you, he, she, etc).
Suddenly the jeep skidded and stopped.
Jake thought that we had a puncture.
Past continuous: positive
The past continuous is subject + was/were + -ing form. There are no short forms of
was/were.
Fortunately, we were carrying a toolkit.

Past simple: negative

We make the negative past simple with didnt + infinitive.

We didnt stay inside the jeep because that was even hotter.
Past continuous: negative
We make the negative past continuous with wasnt/werent + -ing form
Despite the heat, Jess and Debs werent wearing hats.
Past simple: question
The past simple question form is did + subject + infinitive for all persons. The short answers
are Yes, I did. / No, I didnt.
Did the helicopter land in the desert? Yes it did.

Past continuous: question

The past continuous question form is was/were + subject + -ing form. The short answers
are Yes, I was. / No, I wasnt.
How were you feeling when it arrived?

Take note: spelling changes

In the past continuous, all verbs end in -ing, but sometimes the spelling changes:
take taking hit hitting die dying

Take note: verbs we dont use in the past continuous

There are some verbs that we dont usually use in the continuous form. They are often verbs
related to the senses and thinking, for example: hear, see, smell, hate, know, understand,
believe, notice, want, need, seem, wish.
WRONG: Were you knowing Jess when you were living in Madrid?
CORRECT: Did you know Jess when you were living in Madrid?

Spoken English
In the past simple and the past continuous, we usually use a contraction with the negative
auxiliary verb:

didnt (= did not) wasnt (= was not)

We usually say the positive and negative auxiliary verbs quickly and without emphasis. We
dont usually pronounce the final t in didnt, wasnt or werent in the flow of speech.
He wasnt looking when his team scored a goal.
/hi wzn lk wn hz tim skd gl/
But when the word following the contraction begins with a vowel sound, we pronounce the
final t:
They were delayed, so they didnt arrive on time.
/e w dled, s e ddnt rav n tam/

6 Minute Vocabulary
Lexical sets

Finn
lexical sets help us to learn words by grouping them together by topic or word type. So, more
on that later, but first, here's Dave. He's talking about a flood that happened in his home town
recently, and here's a question to answer while you listen: what happened to all of Dave's
possessions?

Dave
Well, we had so much rain: it said on the news we got a month's rainfall in just one day!
The water level rose so high that the river burst its banks and water poured into
everyone's houses. It's terrible - my house was flooded, all my things were
completely soaked and the carpets are still waterlogged.

Catherine
he said all his things were completely soaked - they were covered in water and now they're
all wet and damaged.
Finn
Dave also used a few different words to talk about the flood and its effects. He talked about

the rain and rainfall - that's a way to describe the water that falls as rain over a period of
time
Catherine
And he talked about water level, that's the height of the water in rivers and lakes. And Dave
said it got very high.
Finn
And that's what caused the floods. Now, floods, water level, water, rainfall and rain - these
are all on the topic of rain and floods.
Catherine
And they're also all the same type of word - they're all nouns. So we can group these words
into a lexical set.
Finn
a lexical set is a group of words which are all about the same topic, and which all belong to
the same part of speech - they're all nouns or verbs or adjectives.
Catherine
So, to make a lexical set for activities on a beach holiday, for example...
Finn
swimming, sunbathing, and surfing.
Catherine
And swimming, sunbathing, eating ice cream, and surfing are all gerunds, that's nouns made
from -ing verbs.
Finn
same topic, same word type: that's a lexical set! Lots of people find it useful to learn words in
groups like this. They seem to stick in your mind more easily.
Catherine
That's right and by learning words in lexical sets, you'll also have more words to choose from
when you're talking about a topic.
...my house was flooded, all my things were completely soaked and the carpets are
still waterlogged.
Catherine
Dave said his house was flooded - full of water; all his things were soaked - completely wet;
and his carpets still have lots of water in them - they are waterlogged.
Finn
The words flooded, soaked and waterlogged are all adjectives here, and they're all about
flooding.

Catherine
lexical sets: groups of words related to the same topic that come from the same part of
speech, like nouns, verbs, adjectives, gerunds.
Finn
it's time for a quiz.
Catherine
I'll say three words and you decide if they make a lexical set or not. Finn will tell you the
answers. Ready? Number one. Tea, coffee, water. Lexical set or not?
Finn
Well, they're all drinks - so the same topic - and they're all nouns, so they're a lexical set.
Catherine
Another one: swimming, cleaning, sunbathing.
Finn
And that's not a lexical set. They are all gerunds, but the topic seems to be 'holiday activities'
like swimming and sunbathing - and cleaning doesn't really fit with that group.
Finn
find a friend, and play a game of 'lexical set tennis'. It goes like this. You choose a topic,
like sport, and then choose a word group like nouns - and then you take it in turns to say
words in the set.

Vocabulary points to take away

A lexical set is a group of words that share the same topic or theme and belong to the same
part of speech - they are all nouns, all verbs, all adjectives (for example).
Lexical sets are a useful way to organise vocabulary, making it easier to learn. When reading
texts from different sources, it is a good idea to try to find groups of words that are related to
the same topic and that belong to the same part of speech.

Learn the language: Past simple and continuous

Look at these sentences:
Captain Smith was standing on the deck when Eva boarded the ship.
The ship struck an iceberg while Eva was sleeping.

Eva's father took her to the deck and put her on a lifeboat.
When the lifeboat reached the water, the people on the Titanic were running about
and starting to panic.
The Titanic broke into two pieces and slowly sank into the ocean.
These sentences contain examples of past simple and past continuous.
The ship struck (past simple) an iceberg while Eva was sleeping (past continuous).

When to use past simple

We use the past simple to describe an action that happened and finished in the past. We
commonly use it to give the order of events in a narrative.

Examples
The Titanic struck the iceberg at 11.40pm.
It slowly sank into the ocean.

When to use past continuous

We use the past continuous to describe an action that was in progress at a particular time in
the past but not completed. We often use this tense with a specific time or together with
another shorter event.
Examples
The passengers were having dinner at 9 o'clock.
Captain Smith was standing on the deck.

How to make positive past continuous sentences

The past continuous is made from subject + was/were + verb-ing.
Eva was sleeping

6 Minute Grammar
Past simple and past continuous

Finn
Last night I saw the film 'Titanic'.
Rob
Ooh Titanic, what a movie! Finn saw it last night. So, we use the past simple for completed
actions in the past.
Emma
And we had the past simple of the verb see, which is the irregular form saw.
Rob
And as we know, you just have to learn the irregular verbs.
Emma
But the good news is that lots of verbs are regular, and to make them into the past simple,
you just add e and d to the infinitive, like this:
Finn
Hundreds of passengers jumped into the sea.
Rob
Jump - jumped. Simple. To make past simple negatives, we add didn't to the infinitive, like
this:
Finn
Sandra Bullock didn't win an Oscar for Gravity.
Rob
Now let's look at past simple questions. Emma, did you see the news last night?
Emma
Yes, I did.
Rob
So, for the question, it's: did plus the subject plus the infinitive.
Emma
And the short answers are: Yes plus subject plus did: Yes, I did.
Rob
Or: No plus subject plus didn't: No, I didn't.
Emma
So that's the past simple for completed actions in the past.
Rob
Now, to talk about past activities, we can use the past continuous. Here's an example:
Finn
I was watching a movie on TV. It was raining. We were feeling very bored.

Emma
Now, we can use the past continuous to talk about an activity that was already happening
when something else happened, like this:
Finn
Dad was cooking dinner when the police arrived. The children were watching TV when the
officers came into the living room.
Rob
think about one activity interrupting the other - the activity that was already happening is in the
past continuous - Dad was cooking dinner...
Emma
And the activity that interrupted it is in the past simple: the police arrived.
Rob
So you can put the past simple and continuous together to talk about activities and actions
that happened one on top of another.
Emma
Remember those examples everyone - I'm going to test you later!
Rob
OK. To make the past continuous, it's was or were plus an i-n-g verb.
Finn
Dad was cooking dinner. The children were watching TV.
Rob
Now to make the negative past continuous, you just put wasn't or weren't in front of the
ing verb, like this:

Finn
The baby wasn't sleeping. The children weren't playing games.
Rob
Wasn't sleeping and weren't playing. Wasn't and weren't are short forms of was
not and were not.
Emma
Now for past continuous questions, it's was or were, with the subject plus an i-n-g verb. And
I'm going to demonstrate this by testing you on the examples we had before.
Rob
For past continuous short answers it's: Yes plus subject plus was, or: No plus
subject plus wasn't.

In spoken English
I was making a lark of it and people were singing.

In spoken English, we usually use the weak forms of was /wz/ and were /w/ when forming
past continuous positive sentences and questions.
The // sound that you find in these weak forms is very important in English.
Notice that we often don't say the full 'ing' sound at the end of verb-ing. That means when
Gus speaks, we hear 'I was making...' like this:
I was makin' / wz mekn/

'The' and the zero article

Explanation

When should we use the and when should we use the zero article (-) ? Read the rules
carefully:
Use 'the' with
1) Countries with plural names or with Republic or Kingdom in the name: The United Arab
Emirates, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom.
2) Geographical areas in noun phrases: I live in the north-west of Egypt; in the east.
3) The names of rivers, seas, oceans and mountain ranges: The Mississippi, The Black Sea,
The Atlantic, The Urals.
4) Parts of the day: In the morning/afternoon/evening.
5) Most prepositional phrases of position and place: At the top, on the left, at the
office/bank/cinema.
6) Most prepositional phrases with 'of': At the end of my holiday; in the middle of the night
7) Superlative adjectives: He is the oldest son.
Use 'zero article' (-) with
1) The names of most countries, cities and continents: (-) Saudi Arabia, (-) Argentina, (-)
Warsaw, (-) Beijing, (-) Europe, (-) Asia.
2) Geographical areas in adjective phrases: I live in (-) north-west Egypt, (-) eastern France.
3) The names of single mountains and lakes: (-) Mount Kilimanjaro, (-) Lake Titicaca.

4) Exact days, months and times: on (-) Friday, in (-) March, at (-) 7 oclock.
5) Some prepositional phrases of place: at (-) home, at (-) work, in (-) town, in (-) bed, at (-)
sea.

Pronunciation Practice
Articles in spoken English
Hello, Emma here with a few tips on how to pronounce articles.
In natural spoken English, we usually pronounce 'a' or 'an' with a weak vowel sound // (uh). It
sounds similar to the vowel sound in 'fun', and not the vowel sound in 'cat'. For example: a
holiday, a ticket, an umbrella.
We also pronounce 'the' with this weak sound // (uh) before consonants - the doctor, the
party - and before words that start with a y (/j/) sound, like the uniform, The European Union.
But when 'the' is before a vowel sound, we pronounce the with the long 'ee' sound (i ) like in
'me': the afternoon, the ice, the open door, the upstairs rooms.
Got that? Now you say them...
'a' (uh)... 'the' (uh)... and 'the' (thee).